Among the seven jurors, representing internationally known architects, critics, and designers, is Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger. From 1997 through 2011, Goldberger was The New Yorker’s architecture critic. Today he is Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, for whom he weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Cherry-Gordon house in Raleigh’s historic Oakwood neighborhood. In the article “Is This House Too Modern To Exist?” he praised the Cherry-Gordon house and called NCMH “a wonderful preservation organization.”

The 2017 jury will also include:

Carl Abbott, FAIA, of Carl Abbott Architect, Sarasota FL

Curt Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, of Fentress Architects, Denver CO

Robert Miller,FAIA, of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Seattle WA

Ron Radziner, FAIA, of Marmol Radziner, Los Angeles CA

Susan Saarinen, ASLA, of Saarinen Landscape Architecture, Golden CO

Harry Wolf, FAIA, of Wolf Architecture, Los Angeles CA

Founded by NCMH in 2012, the George Matsumoto Prize is named to honor the architect who designed many exemplary mid-century Modernist houses in North Carolina, and who serves as honorary jury chair each year. The Matsumoto Prize is a unique design competition featuring $6000 in cash awards and online public voting. It is the only design awards program in the state exclusively honoring Modernist residential architecture. Submissions will open in May 2017.

The first feature-length film on the steel and prefab construction pioneer.

The 2016-2017 MoHo Realty Architecture Movie Series, presented by North Carolina Modernist Houses, continues its tribute to Palm Springs, California, on Thursday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m. with the documentary “Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler” directed by Jake Gorst.

During the 1950s and 60s, Donald Wexler pioneered commercial and residential construction using steel and prefabrication. He applied his groundbreaking techniques and unique style to projects for such clients as Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, the Alexander Construction Company, and Walt Disney World Resort.

Wexler’s designs for public buildings in the Coachella Valley of California, including the dramatic Palm Springs Airport, served as both soaring and practical models for other municipalities to emulate. Today Donald Wexler’s work is garnering new appreciation worldwide and providing inspiration for a new generation of architects.

“This is the first feature-length film celebrating Don’t amazing career,” said Gorst.

Each fall, the award-winning non-profit organization North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) launches its annual movie series of hard-to-find architecture-related films. NCMH screens the films once a month through the following February.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. Cash and credit cards are accepted. Mod Squad members get in free until capacity is reached. The first 100 NCSU students with a student ID are admitted free of charge. NCSU Friends of the Library receive 10 percent off the ticket price with a “Friends of the Library” card.

MoHoRealty — specializing in modern and unique architect-designed homes in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill — sponsors the entire series along with VMZinc, Hill Country Wood Works, and The Kitchen Specialist. For more information on the series, the films, and to view trailers, go to www.ncmodernist.org/movies.

The Hunt Library is located on Centennial Campus at 1070 Partners Way, Raleigh. Free parking is available adjacent to the library. For directions, go to www.lib.ncsu.edu/parking.

The Institute recognized George Smart, founder of nonprofit organization North Carolina Modernist Houses, based in Durham, N.C., for taking public knowledge of modern architecture from a local to national level.

The AIA announced the recipient of the 2016 Collaborative Achievement Award, which recognizes and encourages initiatives of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have positively influenced or advanced the architectural field. This year’s winner is George Smart, architectural historian and founder of North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH), a Durham, N.C.–based nonprofit organization that documents, preserves, and promotes modernist architecture in the Old North State as well as many well-known residences across the country. In doing so, Smart’s leadership has created a bridge between the public and design professionals.

Since its inception in 2007, NCMH has built the largest, open digital archive for residential modernist architecture and architects, boasting more than 21,000 images, which has been used as a resource for civic leaders, historians, students, and preservationists. READ MORE…

This year’s MoHo Realty Architecture Movie series, sponsored by North Carolina Modernist Houses and MoHo Realty, continues on Thursday, December 3, at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library Auditorium, NC State University Centennial Campus, in Raleigh with another double feature.

The first film, “Xmas Meier” (2013, 37 minutes)takes viewers, during the Christmas season, into the heart of a working-class neighborhood in the suburbs of Rome that a church built by Richard Meier lifted from obscurity. Controversy, caustic irony, and free speech are juxtaposed with the faithful’s devotion. L’espresso, an Italian news magazine, called the film, “Delightful, wonderful, cheeky, hilarious! Not to be missed!”

The second feature, “Gehry’s Vertigo” (2013, 45 minutes) offers a rare trip onto the roofs of the world-famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. By following the climbing team in charge of cleaning the glass — their ascensions, their techniques, and their difficulties – the documentary observes the good and not-so-good complexity ofFrank Gehry’s architecture.

Monthly through February 2016, the MoHo Realty Architecture Movie Series screens hard-to-find architecture-related films in the Hunt Library Auditorium.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. Cash and credit cards are accepted. Mod Squad members get in free until capacity is reached. The first 100 NCSU students with a student ID are admitted free of charge. NCSU Friends of the Library receive a 10 percent discount off tickets with a “Friends of the Library” card. The Hunt Library is located on Centennial Campus at 1070 Partners Way, Raleigh. Free parking is available adjacent to the library.

Series sponsor MoHo Realty specializes in modern and unique architect-designed homes in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Other series sponsors include VMZinc and Hill Country Wood Works.

Drafting classes are imperative for students who are interested in pursuing careers in architecture (among other professions). Yet, as NCMH Director George Smart explains, “Depending on their locations, up to 60 percent of North Carolina high school students are in families without the means to provide a CAD-level computer at home. For students who are interested in careers in architecture, or any kind of professional design, high school drafting classes simply can’t provide enough class time to achieve the proficiency, or portfolios, required for college. This severely limits their career opportunities, especially in rural areas.”

With these donated computer systems, drafting teachers can assign homework and students can practice CAD at home as much as they want.

Later, with class instruction, students will test their knowledge through an NCMH-sponsored design competition. The winner from each Project BauHow school receives a scholarship to North Carolina State University’s highly regarded summer Design Camp in Raleigh.

Project BauHow schools are selected based on location and need, availability of drafting classes for 9th and 10th grade students, and drafting teacher initiative. The drafting teacher determines which students will receive the CAD systems for home use. Assignments are submitted on USB sticks so students do not need Internet access at home.

The 2015-2016 application forms are available on the NCMH website at www.ncmodernist.org/bauhow. Click on “2016 School Application.” The deadline for applying is May 15, but Smart encourages interested high schools to apply as soon as possible.

Against the industrial backdrop of one of Winston-Salem’s longstanding live music performance locations, Ben Schwab, an architect at Stitch Design + Development, joined Adam Sebastian, an architect with Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce Architects, in welcoming guests to the event.

One of the ideas behind modern architecture is the “form follows function” ideal. Key design elements include simplicity and the elimination of unnecessary detail and the use of industrially-produced details. Sebastian introduced Smart, who shared some of N.C. Modernist’s preservation success stories. READ MORE…

The series will screen “Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe” December 11.

November 25, 2013 (Raleigh, NC) — The 2013-14 MODTriangle Architecture Movie Series, hosted by North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH) and sponsored by Sarah Sonke of MODTriangle, continues Wednesday, December 11, with a special screening of “Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe,” a documentary on the German-American architect and master of Modernist design, at the Raleigh Grande Cinema in Raleigh.

Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) designed such high-profile buildings as The Seagram Building in New York City, Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago, The Barcelona Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. He also designed furniture, including the iconic Barcelona Chair.

But In 1967, at the end of a career spanning more than six decades, he designed a gas station near Montreal. Filmmakers Patrick Demers and Joseph Hillel use the story of that gas station to introduce his entire body of work. As the New York Times described the documentary:

“The program begins with an unusual illustration of the less-is-more philosophy — the creation of a simple Montreal gas station in 1967, late in van der Rohe’s career — and from there, expands into a panoramic view of his life, from his instruction at Bauhaus in the ’30s, through his departure to America, to his death in 1969, and all of the astonishing creations in-between.”

The Chicago Tribune’s movie critic Michael Wilmington noted that the documentary is “well-filmed, well-spoken, not overly adulatory, not pushily dramatic or agenda-laden. It gives us a brief sketch of Mies’ life and shows us a number of his beautiful buildings and interiors, accompanied by a hip jazz soundtrack.”

The film begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $9 and are available at the NCMH Ticket Desk inside the Raleigh Grande at 4840 Grove Barton Road, Raleigh (27613).

Sponsors for the entire series are the Contemporary Art Museum-Raleigh, VMZink, Kontek Systems, and Alison Steele of A+S Design.